All recipes

The Depression-era peanut butter potato candy: one small boiled potato beaten with powdered sugar into a dough, rolled out on sugar, spread with peanut butter, rolled up, chilled an hour and sliced into pinwheels. Cups and grams, and the one rule about the potato.

The old-fashioned pumpkin roll: a thin spiced pumpkin sponge baked in a 15 by 10 inch jelly roll pan, turned out onto a powdered-sugar dish towel, rolled up hot, then filled with cream cheese. Cups and grams, the oven time, and why it never cracks.

Old-fashioned apple fritters: a thick cinnamon batter full of small-diced raw tart apple, dropped by spoonfuls into an inch of oil at 350°F in a cast iron skillet, fried about 2 minutes a side, drained on a paper sack and glazed thin while hot.

The 1970s sock-it-to-me cake as it was on the side of the box: one box of yellow cake mix with sour cream, oil, sugar and four eggs, a streak of brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans through the middle, an hour at 350°F, and a thin powdered sugar glaze.

Appalachian soup beans: dried pinto beans simmered slow for 2 to 3 hours with a smoked turkey wing, an onion and salt until the broth turns thick, served with cornbread crumbled in and chopped raw onion on top. With the soak and the salt timing explained.

Old-fashioned Southern fried corn the way it was made every August: fresh kernels cut shallow off eight ears, the bare cobs scraped hard for their milk, and everything cooked slow in butter in a cast iron skillet until thick, creamy and catching on the bottom. No cream, no flour, cups and grams.

Old-fashioned Southern fried okra: sliced rounds dipped in buttermilk, tossed in seasoned cornmeal, the loose meal shaken off, and fried in batches in half an inch of hot oil in a cast iron skillet without stirring. Crisp, brown and never slimy.

Real Southern grits: stone-ground or old-fashioned grits, never instant, whisked into salted boiling water and stirred low and slow for 30 to 45 minutes until creamy, then finished with butter, salt and pepper. The sugar question answered plainly.

Old-fashioned Southern sweet potato pie: sweet potatoes boiled whole in their skins for about 45 minutes, peeled hot and mashed with butter, then beaten with sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and nutmeg and baked in a 9-inch crust at 350°F. Why it is not pumpkin pie, in cups and grams.

A gallon of real Southern sweet tea the old way: family-size tea bags steeped off the heat, a pinch of baking soda in the pot before the bags go in, the sugar stirred into the tea while it is hot, and cold water to fill the pitcher. Exact amounts, number of bags and steeping time.

The old-fashioned Sunday pot roast: a chuck roast seared hard in a Dutch oven, one envelope of dry onion soup mix and a little water, lid on, 325°F for about 3 hours 30 minutes, with the carrots and potatoes added for the last 1 hour 15 minutes.

Old-fashioned Swiss steak: cheap round steak pounded with flour until half as thick, browned, then baked slow under canned tomatoes and onions at 300°F for two and a half hours until it cuts with a fork. Served over mashed potatoes.